spritzer

Woo Audio and Lampazitor in the same system... damn this one is a glutton for punishment

I think they are HD650 pads but they were just some I found in my stash of earpads. I had to trim off the plastic ring at the bottom and attach them with double sided adhesive but it fits nicely on there.

Well he has lost his marbles... I must say though that I feel the same way for current day Stax, they just sound a bit soulless and appear to be lost. They came out with the L series... but why make those changes? What is the purpose of fucking with the imaging on those and the X9000? Take this SR-Alpha Pro (Japanese Gamma Pro btw.) I got this week, it was utterly disgusting when it arrived so earpads and headpad had to go and a lot of time spent cleaning them up. Drivers were perfect though and they did clean up nicely: They sound far from perfect but I'd much rather use these than the 007S. They sound more alive despite their limitations and the tiny driver.

I wasn't sure where to put this either but this should be rare enough, the Sony ECR-800 energizer or the ECA-80 to be precise. Now there is a bit of a backstory to this one, I've never found a ECR-800 but I found this one for a song in China so I had to snap it up. It was in a bad way when it arrived, damage all over and the back sockets all a bit crooked but the worst was inside. See, Sony in their infinite wisdom, used a mercury switch for the input switching and that had broken in shipping. There was mercury all over the inside so I had to clean everything and dispose of it properly. It's a shame as its a very early unit with the custom Sony sockets, they later moved onto using Stax 6 pin sockets with these. I let it sit for probably a year before I decided what to do with it as so a full rebuild was in order. These are 100V only so for my use I need a new transformer, I fitted an IEC on the back, new binding posts with the switch function bypassed and all caps replaced. I also fitted a 6 pin Stax socket to the front as I don't have an ECR-800 and if I ever find one, odds are it will have that plug. Plus this works nicely with Stax normal bias sets. For the circuitry as it is a bit odd for 1978 or so. Most of the what's there is a protection circuit and output relay but the gray brick on the bottom is the bias supply, a DC/DC converter. It has clearly seen some use as there should be paint on there but it seems to work fine and there is clearly a ballast resistor in there too. It's also odd that the transformers have two sets of wires so each socket is fed from its own set of wires. See the 4 purple bias wires too, they are all common on the bias supply.

I like that riser for the power switch and the tubes visible through the front.

That looks rather old and not fun at all to work on. When was this made, the 90's?

No idea as I've never had a broken set here to experiment on. Based on this set the coating is definitely helping and I'm about 85% balanced now. The plan is to rewire them and see how much that changes. I'm not a fan headphones being out of phase in general, I always reverse it on HE60's when I work on them as they are also wired out of phase from the factory.

You can't plug normal bias headphones into a Pro bias output, that will just blow them up even on trash like the D10. If it is just the plug you want to modify, no you'd need to connect the left side bias somewhere in the cable as it is only connected to the center pin.

In an effort to try and finish up some of the gigantic pile of projects, here is a fully DC/DC powered KGSSHV. The unit is close to 10 years old but not really used at all as it ended up at Kevin's with some transformer trouble. A couple of years ago I made an effort to bring all those amps home so I stripped it down for transport and the transformer went in the trash to save on weight. Then I found those lovely 400V DC/DC bricks, added one for 600V bias (with a bit of a trim and filtering) and one for +/-15V, all driven off a 90W 24VDC Meanwell brick. I had to lower the output stage current a bit from stock and there is a tiny bit of coil whine coming from those HV supplies but it works well. The B+ supply is the hottest part in there at 60°C.

Kevin warned me about that stuff as it is toxic if I remember correctly. I have a rule of thumb, if Kevin says something is nasty stuff then I keep well clear.

Probably, never tried it and it always a question how long the coating would last but well worth a try.

We aren't in the EU and that muddles everything. I'll try that plus I should have some airbrush equipment somewhere. I just made some new stators for my Senn HD6x0 design that I want to try out.

Licron is not available here and shipping anything under pressure is a no-go. The Comfort was available at my local store so I'll give it a go. Nice consistency too and dirt cheap.

Interesting, I'll see if I can find that locally. Do you apply it with an airbrush or a sponge?

It was antistatex spray, it was what I had at hand and could use in a small dosage. I went away today and when I arrived home again the imbalance was back. Might not be as bad but yeah, not a good fix.